Urban Exploration App Catalogs Modern-Day Ruins

Creative firm FORM has released, "Abandoned", a niche community-driven virtual tourism app for iPhone and iPod touch that lets users explore, discover, and share abandoned locations across the United States. Currently in Apple's Top 20 Paid Travel apps list, and recently featured in Apple's "What's Hot list", Abandoned allows users to become armchair explorers of modern-day ruins, from empty asylums to shipwrecks under the Great Lakes.

GPS technology pinpoints abandoned places nearby and across the U.S., and each location contains background information, current and historical photos, maps and satellite imagery. Locations vary from submerged towns and dead amusement parks, to crumbling prisons and forgotten hotels.

The app is crowd-sourced and encourages community involvement by inviting users to post their own locations, photos, and stories, or comment and contribute photos to existing locations. As the app's user base grows, so does its content, as photographers, preservationists and explorers add their own work to the mix.


"I think everyone has an innate curiosity about the 'creepy old building on the hill' - Abandoned grants access to those places," said Teresa Kahooilihala, FORM partner and one of the app's creators. "There's something compelling about a once-grand church filled with snow drifts, or a piano untouched under decades of dust, or a massive asylum falling into ruin - All irresistible glimpses into our past, and future." Abandoned marks FORM's 10th iPhone app release and is the first in a series of niche adventure travel apps scheduled for release in 2010.

Features:
* GPS mapping automatically locates and displays abandoned places nearby
* Immersive photos put you right at the scene
* Read and share comments, reviews and experiences about each location
* Upload your own abandoned locations with descriptions and photos
* Contribute to other's locations with your own photos and comments
* Save your favorite places and keep a log of your own private locations
* View in state-by-state list format, or dynamic map
* Automatic updates when new locations are added
* 1 to 5 star ratings for each location
* Explore for fun or use for scouting film locations and photo shoots

Pricing and Availability:
Abandoned 1.11 is $2.99 (USD) and available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Travel category.


Read More